Tsunami dolphin rescued from rice paddy 1 mile inland

Tsunami dolphin: A baby dolphin was rescued from a rice paddy 1 mile from the sea after being swept inland in the tsunami.

ByElaine Lies, ReutersMarch 24, 2011

Ryo Taira (r.), and an unidentified man lift a baby dolphin out of a flooded rice field after it was swept inland by a tsunami following an earthquake in Sendai, in this picture taken Tuesday. Taira found the dolphin struggling in the shallow seawater and, after failing to net it, waded into the field, which had yet to be sown with rice, to cradle the animal in his arms and return it to the sea.

Asahi Shimbun/Reuters

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A baby dolphin has been rescued in Japan after being dumped in a rice field by a giant tsunami that hit the coast on March 11.

The dolphin was spotted in the flooded field, about 2 km (a mile) from the coast, said Ryo Taira, a pet-shop owner who has been rescuing animals abandoned after the 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami left 23,000 people dead or missing.

"A man passing by said he had found the dolphin in the rice paddy and that we had to do something to save it," the 32-year-old Taira told Reuters.

Taira found the dolphin struggling in the shallow seawater on Tuesday and after failing to net it, waded in to the field, which had yet to be sown with rice, to cradle the 1.2-meter (four foot) animal in his arms.